Indienne, but Meatier

An old friend came to town, and they wanted to check out Indienne. I'd been in May for the vegetarian menu, so this time, I had their non-veg option.

I tried a cocktail this time. Their cocktail menu had some very interesting items: I picked the seabass, which was a savoury dill-forward drink, with a big ol' cold rock¹, and a bit of chili oil.

It had a nice foam, like it had been thickened up with egg whites. I am 98% sure the menu did not mention it containing fish, but this Chicago Food Magazine article about changes to their bar programme suggests that the mouthfeel may have been due to fish gelatin:

For example, seabass trimmings find new life in the "Seabass" cocktail . . .

I am not entirely sure how to feel about that. It was good! But also, surprise there was a fish in your alcohol was not something I expected to discover doing research for the blog post. 🤷

Now, when we went the first time, we very specifically picked the veg option because it was supposed to be better:

They offer a couple different menus: vegetarian, pesceterian, vegan, and a non-vegetarian menu, all of which have their own wine pairings. We'd heard their non-veg menu leaned waaay more heavily into French influences than the veg one, so we opted to go (mostly) vegetarian, since we can get fancy French stuff at most places. I wanted to see star-worthy indian food -- not more white asparagus.

After having tried both, I gotta agree with The Critics. This was a good meal, but the vegetarian menu was, IMHO, more interesting than just slappin' some Indian spices and sauces on expensive meats. If you recall the avocado steak & paneer tube with bi-colour sauces: these were unique offerings! Lobster tail is good and all, but we have lobster at home.

Just like last time, we got the supplemental courses (lobster, butternut squash) from both the veg & non-veg menus. The squash was the same as the first visit, and we were perfectly happy with that because it's one of the best things they make.

The chicken was, um, interesting. It's the diamon-shaped thing. It sounded like it was going to be a chicken pâté, so I was expecting a smooth texture under the truffle. But it was more like canned tuna? I was not a huge fan of the chicken. Fortunately, it was served on a cheese sauce with a nice bit of bread. That redeemed the course. 🥉

If you looked through that and saw the amuse-bouche and went eww what the fuck chocolate and mustard: no, it was quite nice! It was not very sweet white chocolate, so it worked nicely!

The service was top-notch. We even got an update on our somm from last time: they've moved on! Which is sad for us, but they told us some exciting plans last time, so I hope they're makin' it happen.

There wasn't anything as cool as the Pico island vineyards this time, though. The pairings were good, but I don't want to overshadow the literal fish cocktail I accidentally had.